Ends tomorrow

The Lower Mainland’s newest online marketplace will open on Monday, April 28, when LikeItBuyItVancouver.com begins previewing a limited-time sale of everything from household goods to consumer electronics to cruises, travel, cars, gift cards and personal services.

Cheekily called Ross' Gold — a play both on his gold medal and names for types of marijuana — the company expects to set up a flagship store in Whistler

B.C.’s Olympic gold medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati.

Photograph by: Steve Bosch
, Vancouver Sun

Ross Rebagliati, the Olympic gold medallist, plans to open up a franchise of medical marijuana shops that trade on his fame.

Saying he had tried for 15 years to leave behind the bad-boy reputation that had been visited upon him by his infamous run-in with the International Olympic Committee after they tried to take away his gold medal from the 1998 Nagano Winter Games for testing positive for marijuana, Rebagliati plans to go fully into the pot-dispensing business.

Legally.

Cheekily called Ross' Gold — a play both on his gold medal and names for types of marijuana — the company expects to set up a flagship store in Whistler this spring once the federal government privatizes the medical marijuana production industry. At first it will offer a storefront coffee shop with an age-restricted marijuana paraphernalia shop behind, and ultimately a doctor's office and dispensary.

Rebagliati said Wednesday he'd never wanted his name to be associated with marijuana when he was that young, brash snowboarder who shot to fame by winning the first gold when the IOC opened the Olympics to snowboarding. He had other plans, including being a role model for sport and earning a good life from the corporate sponsorships that were rolling his way.

But that positive test, which was eventually found to be the result of second-hand smoke he inhaled at a pre-Olympics party, cast his fate in a different direction. He got his gold medal back, but lost the sponsorships and his name became synonymous with drugs in sport.

"It is the hand I was dealt 15 years ago. I can't get away from it," he said. "So I decided if you can't beat 'em, you gotta join 'em."

Rebagliati expects to make a lot more gold if his business model stands up to scrutiny. He projects his business will be doing more than $50 million a year after the third year, once it opens satellite stores in Vancouver and Toronto.

Rebagliati laid out the argument for Ross' Gold in a report published on a related company website.

He said he expects the company, also known as Rebagliati Gold Ltd., will seek listing on the Canadian National Stock Exchange (CNSX). Rebagliati said he is aware of Vancouver's reputation for being a home to questionable stock deals, but is working with several professionals to make sure Ross' Gold has a good reputation.

"You know, we've got some good backing and some great people on our team who are making this all come together," he told The Vancouver Sun. "We've got experts in each category who are good at what they do."

Among those is Patrick Smyth, of Ocean Eclipse Venture Capital, whose company website indicates he's been involved in large number of stock exchange-listed companies. He's a director of Rebagliati Gold. Kenneth Lelek of World Fund Corp., according to Rebagliati Gold's statement, is also advising the company.

Lelek has been involved in a number of promotions, and in the 1990s was a partner with Lloyd Robinson, a member of the Hell's Angel East End chapter in Vancouver, in a number of ventures, including a porn and gambling company called Starnet Communications International.

The CNSX, with its simplified reporting requirements, has become an alternative stock exchange to the more favoured TSXV. It generally attracts lower quality stocks than the TSXV. However, Rebagliati said he's not going to allow his name to be associated with stock manipulation and he has visions of moving fully into distribution of marijuana to the public if it is ever legalized.

"There is going to be new federal laws coming into place and we are going to follow them to a T. There is not going to be any grey area. This is going to be 100-per-cent legal," he said.

In his company statement Rebagliati said the federal government's decision to get out of the medical marijuana business is opening a tremendous business opportunity for his company.

"As the federal government gets out of the medical marijuana business, taxpayers will no longer be subsidizing its sale. Under the current program, the marijuana costs about $5 per gram. Under the proposed changes, that price will rise to about $8.80 a gram," the company said in its statement.

And the sky is the limit should the Canadian government ever decriminalize pot, he said.

"When and if marijuana is decriminalized in Canada like it has been in the American states of Washington and Colorado, the opportunity would also exist for the company to become a government licensed supplier to the general public," the company statement said.

Rebagliati said he expects the Whistler storefront will eventually house a doctor's office where medical marijuana prescriptions will be issues, and a dispensary where they will be then filled.

He says there's no shortage of people who will want Ross' Gold, noting that "66 per cent of Canadians support decriminalization of marijuana as the United States moves toward taxation and regulation in Washington and Colorado."

In the last decade the number of patients with authorized access to Canada's Marijuana Medical Access Program has grown from 500 to more than 21,000, he said. But Health Canada suggests that number will grow to more than 300,000 in the next decade. That, Rebagliati says, puts the potential value of medical marijuana in the range of $5 billion.

And that's not even taking into account the market if Canada ever legalizes possession.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.